The first Malay woman who qualified as a medical doctor at the then King Edward VII College of Medicine in Singapore has died of old age.

Dr Salma Ismail, 95, died at Pantai Hospital in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday.

Her eldest son, Dr Ridzwan Bakar, 64, said his mother died at 6.15pm.

“My mother’s determination to become a doctor superseded the norms of the time, especially for a single Malay girl to travel from her hometown in Alor Star by boat to study in Singapore. But she made it," Dr Ridzwan told The New Straits Times.

“She was the only female candidate and the first in Kedah who passed the Senior Cambridge with distinction.”

Dr Salma had created history in 1947​ by becoming the first Malay woman to qualify as a medical doctor at the college, which later became the medical faculty​ at the National University of Singapore.